Do you think global warming deniers believe their own lies?

Many of them do believe their own lies.

Cognitive dissonance prevents them from accepting facts that would lead them to recognize that they are dooming their families to a dismal future:

Cognitive Dissonance

"This is the feeling of uncomfortable tension which comes from holding two conflicting thoughts in the mind at the same time.

Dissonance increases with:

- The importance of the subject to us.

- How strongly the dissonant thoughts conflict.

- Our inability to rationalize and explain away the conflict.

Dissonance is often strong when we believe something about ourselves and then do something against that belief. If I believe I am good but do something bad, then the discomfort I feel as a result is cognitive dissonance.

Cognitive dissonance is a very powerful motivator which will often lead us to change one or other of the conflicting belief or action."

http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/cog...

A small percentage of them are paid liars or work in the oil and gas industry (most geologist do for example), but most are simply easily misled bacause they very much want to believe that they are not causing damage.

It's weird to watch people ignore the complete lack of contrary science though, isn't it? They seem to assume that valid skeptical science exists, without ever pointing to a single example of a peer-reviewed paper published in a respected journal.

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Northern Logger - So by your reasoning, calling someone a coward on the internet, is an act of... ________ ? Surely lies about science are relatively easy to expose, while terms like "coward" simply amount to petty name-calling. I'd expect better from you.

GatorswithGuns - Lindzen simply argues that mankind's influence may be lower than other scientists say, Gray simply says that hurricanes might not get stronger or more frequent. Are you aware of a single working scientist who denies that warming is happening, or who denies that mankind is contributing to the current changes? Are you aware that anyone could assign themselves to be a scientist for that list of 31,000 "scientists"? Heck, I signed that list early on (look up the "Oregon Petition") before I actually looked into the research and realized that there's essentially no peer-reviewed science opposing greenhouse gas theory. It's worthless.

Dana, you are a hypocrite of the first order. As others have said, the simple truth is that every single time you label Global Warming Sceptics with the word “Denier”, you are making an ad hominem attack. And you do that in pretty much every single question and answer that you give. Let’s be clear about this, I *deny* nothing. I simply look at *all* of the data with an *open mind* and keep finding things that simply don’t add up. This leads me to the inescapable conclusion that the theory of Anthropogenic Global Warming (and *especially* the part that says we are heading for disaster as a result) has not been proved beyond doubt and that there are enough problems with the theory to remain sceptical. You use the term “Denier” due to the Holocaust connotations it evokes and the thinly veiled insult that goes along with those connotations. Every time you use the word, what you’re actually saying is “…these people who are sceptical of Global Warming who are like those evil people who deny that the Holocaust happened…” If that isn’t an ad hominem attack, I don’t know what is! And let’s also be clear about that fact that almost every Alarmist on here does exactly the same thing and every one that does is also using an ad hominem attack. So, as I said, you are a hypocrite. And, *of course* no Global Warming Alarmist scientist has ever lied has he? (Michael Mann, anyone?) As ever with global warming - don't believe the hype.

I don't think they believe their own lies. I think really their just trying to spread misinformation, cloud the debate, and halt any action. They know the destruction they're helping bring and they're proud of it.

That's why the excuses always change. First it's the sun, then we had a warm period in the 1700's (as if anyone could KNOW that) a few even claimed that venus was hotter than usual hundreds of years ago.

I'm absolutely convinced that people like that are literally hell bent on the destruction of earth. Call me crazy if you all want, but i've never EVER seen a more desperate attempt to halt progress and further erode the environment.

I've even talked to people who, no exxageration, WANTED everything destroyed. they can't wait for the day when all the forests are torn down and all the rivers dried up and replaced with malls and "economy"

There hasn't been a war in history thats been fought harder than this

Just like anyone whose been pushed to defend something they dont really want to defend, the deniers probably feel awkward doing it, but they are solidly in the corner of their political party. It has happened to most of us, I would be talking to a republican about how the war in Iraq was wrong, unjustified, illegal, etc., and before you know it, theyre trying to corner me into defending Saddam. But some of these mouth breathers arent conscious of what theyre doing, and to them, it's not our planet, it's a game of tit for tat. And they arent brave enough to have integrity to draw the line. They are scared of how it would make them look if someone on their side thought they cared about the environment.

I think they believe what they're saying.

Actually, some don't deny that the earth is WARMING UP (it is), but the CAUSE of the temperature increase (which might not be greenshouse gases). According to some sources, the world is entering the next ice age, and before every ice age comes a (relatively) short period during which the temperature of the earth rises... if this is true, there's nothing humans can do to solve the problem since it's not our fault!...

The accuracies of long term predictions of climate models are low due to chaotic nature of the atmosphere-ocean system and difficulties in representing natural forcings (solar activity, cosmic ray flux, volcanic eruptions, ... ) to climate models, so many scientists move to the skeptical side.

http://bluemarbleclimate.wordpress.com/2...

They can't believe them too strongly.

As you yourself have noticed, they change story from one minute to the next.

EDIT: Oh it's so much fun reporting the deniers who have refused to answer the question.

I do not care if you had a PhD in science. The Earth has been going through cycles of warming and cooling over millions of years. Thank God we did not have the lunatic fringe scientists during those times. There would have been mass suicide. Al Gore, along with Darwin, the greatest scientists that ever lived. The only group that lies more than people who deny global warming are those who believe in it. Is that cigarette in your mouth spiked with an illegal substance?

I guess you are talking about NASA's chief scientist, scientists at the Danish National Space Center, Dr. Lindzen, from MIT, Dr. Michaels, from the University of Virginia, Drs. Courtney, Dietze, and Gray, from the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, among many, many others. Are you aware that 31,000 plus U.S. scientists (including more than 9,000 Ph.D's) have signed a petition urging our government to reject the Kyoto accord because there is no convincing evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane or other greenhouse is causing or will cause global warming.

Yes, for the most part they do. But, deep down they know that they are wrong and rather than face being wrong they will do and say and even believe that the facts are wrong and their beliefs are right.

You just had your point made for you by popcap. The equatorial regions are not warming as fast but they are warming. This kind of lie gives them the feeling their beliefs are right and everyone else has the facts wrong.